A New Orleans-style restaurant for River North

A New Orleans-style restaurant is set to open mid October in River North. The 130-seat Nouveau Tavern will occupy Ai Sushi's old space at 358 W. Ontario in a block that's seen two restaurant closings this year.

Just west of Orleans Street and near the ramp to the expressway, it's been a tough spot for restaurants.

Nouveau Tavern will open for dinner every night, and executive chef Norman Hargrove said the restaurant eventually will serve lunch on Friday and brunch on the weekend. Mr. Hargrove created the menu with a focus on updating Southern classics.

“I believe that people of all cultures can find something they like,” said the chef, who's been a chef at Peninsula Chicago. “We're not presenting New Orleans food in the same plain, dull, boring way — the way it's been served for 50 years.”

Mr. Hargrove completed a culinary internship in New Orleans for six months, where he picked up some of the flavors and traditional dishes he's now updating with new twists. His menu favorites include shrimp and grits, seafood gumbo, crawfish burgers and bayou wings.

Mr. Hargrove called the space “perfect” for his New Orleans theme. In addition to Southern food, the restaurant will feature New Orleans music and DJs.

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Chef Norman Hargrove

"From my point of view there are no major competitors where we are,” he said. The new restaurant will open less than a mile from Heaven on Seven, a Cajun/Creole restaurant owned by Jimmy Bannos, Jr.

Mr. Hargrove said Nouveau Tavern's drink menu will building on classic southern drinks such as house-made sweet tea vodka and a drink called the Ninth Ward, made with blackberry moonshine.

“Chicago's going into this huge craft direction, but New Orleans isn't a craft place,” bar manager Daniel Pagano said. “Everything you can get from the bar you can make at home, and there's nothing outlandish or crazy, nothing you can't find at a liquor store or the corner store.”

The restaurant concept was conceived a year ago with the help of Teddy Gilmore, managing partner of the Chicago-based restaurant consulting group Eat & Drink Too LLC. This is Mr. Gilmore's first restaurant venture; the restaurant is owned by a private investor, Chicagoan Marsette Mangum.